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10 Ways to Improve Your Paid Campaigns

If you’ve given a pay per click marketing campaign a try and left waving the wave the flag, you’re not the only one. After all, you spent a little bit of money and haven’t noticed any results. The thing is, a successful PPC campaign doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, knowledge and testing. Make that lots of testing.

But, let’s say that you’ve been sticking with your PPC campaign. You may have noticed a little bit of traffic – hopefully even some sales – but it’s not as much as you would like. What can you do to make certain that you’re getting the most bang out of your buck?

As you’re most likely already aware, your PPC campaign begins with using the relevant keywords that fit your niche. But, how can you be certain that your money isn’t being used for keywords that won’t help increase sales?

One of easiest places to start scoping out keywords would be to see what your competitors are using. Not only will this clue you in on which keywords to bid on, it also gives you the chance to make sure that they’re no bidding on your brand. You can also see which keywords your customers, partners and suppliers are using. You could also use tools like Google AdWords or WordStream to search for the keywords or phrases that you’d like to use.

When you first start out, only bid for a small amount of targeted keywords to avoid depleting your budget. By doing this you can see which keywords are and are not working. Also keep in mind that you should also use plural forms of keywords. There’s a possibility that the plural forms are more effective than the singular forms.

2. Refine Your Ad Copy

If you’re taken the time to do research, then you already know who your customers are. To attract them you’ll have to create intriguing ad copy. To do this effectively, you’ll want to include your targeted keywords in the ad, which you can do with Google AdWords.

When creating your ad copy, use language that will make you stand out from your competitors, like using humor. Also don’t forget to include a call-to-action and to constantly test the results of the language featured in your copy.

3. Track Everything

One of the perks with PPC advertising is that you can keep tabs on every penny that you spend. If you’re using AdWords, for example, then you could use the free conversion tracking tool. This tool allows you to see what happens after a customer clicked on your ad – did they make a purchase, sign-up for a newsletter, etc.. By analyzing this type of data you’ll be able to adjust your campaign to make sure your keywords and ads are paying off.

4. Combine With Organic Search Marketing

If you’ve done a search on Google, whether it’s Ford, Target or American Express, you’ve probably noticed that there are ads for these companies above the link for the official website. This means that these brands are combining both their PPC and SEO campaigns, Why? Because this ensures that they will dominate Google’s search results. It’s also a simple way to prove that you’re both influential and an industry leader.

5. Target By Location

Were you aware that many PPC campaign platforms, such as Google AdWords, offer several different location targeting options? This is an incredible feature if your business relies on customers in specific locations. To boost the performance of your campaign, you have the ability to target your efforts based on Country, Region, State or Zip Code. You could even set a radius around certain streets, which would be extremely helpful if you’re operating a local delivery service.

6. Select the Right Times

Another way to improve your PPC campaign, as well as tightening up your budget, is to base your campaigns around seasons and holidays. For example, if you ran a clothing store, you could have a summer campaign that began showing ads for shorts and tank tops in April. Your winter campaign could launch in August and contain ads that featured jackets and scarves. As for holidays, you could create campaigns that ran only around targeted holidays. Just remember to test to see which holidays are drawing the most customers.

Besides campaigns that take place during certain seasons or holidays, you could also make use of dayparting. Don’t get caught up in the name. It’s just a clever way in saying that you run your ads during certain times of the day. This would be useful if your business revolved around certain hours – wouldn’t it make more sense to run ads for a nightclub during the commute home than first thing in the morning? However, dayparting can also be used if you notice that a majority of your customers are searching for your keywords at certain hours of the day. After analyzing your data you notice customers searching between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., wouldn’t you want to run ads during those hours?

7.Placement Targeting

Placement Targeting, formerly known as Site Targeting, is for Google AdWords only and gives you the ability run ads on Google’s Content Network. This means that you can place your ads on the websites of choosing, or even just sections of those site. The catch, however, is that this is on a smaller scale.

What’s appealing about Placement Targeting is that you can place ads on the sites where your customers visit or even just a major website until you find your audience if you’re just starting out. Also, by using Google’s Content Network, you’ll make certain that you aren’t wasting your time and money on any underperforming sites.

8. Site Links and Ad Extensions

If you’re looking to improve your click through rate, then you should consider using site links. Why? Because site links can be incredibly beneficial. For example, they highlight benefits or features and even offer more details about your business – hours, product specifications. All of these examples are ways to attract customers and direct them to your site.

You can also utilize ad extensions. For example, you would place a link in your ad so that visitors can click a link to download your app, call your business, get directions or read reviews. This feature is provided at no additional cost and is one of the best techniques you could use to increase both your visibility and ROI.

9. Multi-Channel Marketing

Multi-channel marketing, for the uninitiated, refers to interacting with customers across different channels both directly and indirectly. In other words, you would send out a promotional code in an email for customers to use at your physical location. The idea behind multi-channel marketing is that you want your customers to take action while at the same time establishing name recognition, trust and brand image.

So, how exactly can this be a part of your PPC campaign? Let’s say that you have a car dealership, your ad could contain an extension that allows visitors to schedule a test drive. If you have an ecommerce shop you could offer free shipping in the ad. The possibilities are almost endless. You just have to narrow down which extensions would work best for your business.

10. Optimize Your Landing Page

Finally, if you really want to give your PPC campaign a little push, you should optimize your landing page. This may sound like a daunting task, but it’s not as horrible as you would think once you get going.

The begin, you’ll want to improve your quality score – this is the numeric value between 1 and 10 that indicates how relevant your keywords are, the ad copy and the landing page. This is important because the higher your quality score is the more often your ads will be shown, along with a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Also, with Google’s quality score, advertisers who have high quality ad campaigns are rewarded by having traffic driven to the proper landing pages.

Here are a couple of tips on how to improve your quality score:

Your ad copy should describe the products or services you are advertising.

Use your keyword(s) in the ad copy, as well as the headline.

Be positive that your landing page and the content featured in the ad copy are are the same products or services that you’re advertising.